Star Trek Retro Review: "Future's End" | Time Travel Episodes
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#startrek #startrekvoyager #review #timetravel - บันเทิง
My favorite thing about this episode requires a bit of explanation, but that's the welcome message Robinson transmits to Voyager. It's very much inspired by the messages on the Voyager Golden Record, included on the Voyager space probes launched in the Seventies.
Not coincidentally, the writer of this episode has a profoundly intimate connection to the Voyager Golden Record. His voice, recorded as a child, was the English-speaking child's voice saying "greetings from the children of planet earth." It was recorded by his father, one of the architects of the Golden Record.
The writer of this episode was Nick Sagan. His father was Carl Sagan.
This comment deserves more attention.
Very cool!
holy shit! wow. that explains some of the plot points, it’s a very sagan story.
Wow, that's amazingly cool! Carl Sagan's writing really helped to shape how I think while I was growing up, from watching "Cosmos" when I was 9 in my school's so called "gifted program", to reading "Demon Haunted World" the year I finished high school, and mourning the loss of a great mind, while rejoicing that he'd left us such a final gift. It makes so much sense that his son would end up working with Star Trek, as he had a sense of possibility and cautious optimism about the future that seems unfortunately rare now.
I generally disagree about the mobile emitter being a bad thing. It allowed the doctor's character to grow and gain depth. It was not until after he got the emitter that the doctor would become one of the best characters in the series. In my opinion at least.
@@ExtremeMadnessX Because they actually had character development. B'Elanna had a little herself in that she accepted her klingon side and Janeway grew into a more competent/experienced captain, but Seven and Doctor are the only ones who substantially grew and changed.
I liked that the Doctor started out with the limitation of being stuck in Sickbay, but I wouldn't have wanted that to be the case for seven seasons. I think it was just the right time to give the Doc a chance to develop further.
Yeah, that was one of the weirder takes from him. The Doctor had grown to the point that it made sense to give him freedom. Keeping him in sickbay would prevent his character growth from this point forward.
It felt like a natural growth to me, and not contrived for the convenience of the writers.
@@ZipplyZaneit didn’t require the mobile emitter though, they already seeded installing regular emitters in other decks in season 2. That was originally the plan, to get it working right in season 3. But then this episode changed it
I always found it amusing that they cast Ed Begley Jr., one of the most granola-munching lefties to ever hug a tree, in the role of a rapacious billionaire capitalist.
It seems unlikely that we'll get new episodes of trek shows where they utterly demolish a tycoon, but it was a running thing for a while. And we got iconic scenes each time it happened.
I think it would have been pretty neat if there had been a quick thirty second scene where they find some clue that Braxton or his faction meant for the emitter to be there because they were rooting for Voyager and they wanted to help Voyager to have a small advantage in some challenges to come. That wouldn't need a big overstated payoff down the line but maybe it would have been interesting if there was some nod during the finale. Future Janeway using it to distract the Borg while she set up her trap, saying she had spent decades thinking about why the time cops left the emitter with Voyager and she had concluded that they needed to use it against the Borg in the 24th century as a means to somehow benefit the 29th century equivalent of the Federation. Maybe do something crazy like show how giving the Borg Queen a black eye in the present will slow them down because otherwise the future gets pretty grim. "Bringing Voyager home isn't just about saving our crew, it's about stopping the Borg, here, now, in your timeframe instead of mine. In our future, the Federation becomes a military state. Its only purpose is to fight the Borg. Starfleet conscripts from every member species. Children grow up learning to use a weapon, to crush their curiosity and wonder and replace those useless ideas with hate and spite. Questioning these practices is not tolerated, for the state's given reason that deviance from the Federation's purpose would endanger it and allow the enemy to win. Every person, every natural resource, every home, every planet can be sacrificed. If the Doctor sucker punches the Queen today, tomorrow a whole lot of people don't have to die."
It was?
Yeah wouldn't that episode where quark became a warlord be around the same time? They demolished quite a few in that episode, in fact I think everyone ends up belly up in the end. Don't mess with quark, bro's toppling empires with his schemes if you really think about it. Quark is as, if not more important than the nagus and so are Rom and Nog. They are the single most influential ferengi family in the 24th century by far.
I wouldn’t bet against them doing it again and I can’t wait for the freaks to get in arms about it being ‘woke’ 😂
Even if the doctor hadn't got his hands on the emitter, eventually it would make sense to place emitters throughout the ship so the doctor is more mobile to key areas of the ship like Engineering, the Bridge, Mess Hall and so on, since he is the primary medical physician, give or take Tom Paris when he's available (and at the time of Future's End Kes was still around, and training as a nurse under the Doc's tutelage).
Favorite quotation from the episode, spoken by Janeway: "Ever since my first day as a Starfleet captain, I swore I'd never let myself get caught in one of these Godforsaken paradoxes. The past is the future, the future is the past, it all gives me a headache."
My favourite moment is a small one, but it’s when Janeway gets a call and a businessman walking past takes out his phone all “hello? Hello?!” because he heard her combadge beeping.
If I'm being honest, the doctor was a character Berman wanted to follow in the footsteps of Spock, Data and Odo. However they seemed to take more inspiration from Data than Spock/Odo. So when he got the mobile emitter, to me that was analogous to Data finally installing his emotion chip. Both unexpected developments for both characters, but also took them in unique directions in their respective arcs
I am pretty sure the Orville line "you look like unemployed backup dancers" is a riff on this episode.
Also I'm pretty sure a lot of nerds crush on Sarah Silverman from this episode.
Mine might have started on SNL, but this episode probably cemented it.
"Divine intervention is unlikely."
- The Doctor, 1996
An absolute favorite.
The Doctor being sarcastic to those militia guys was the only dialogue that stuck with me.
The other thing I remembered was their mild surprise that this rando had brought about the micro - electronics revolution with future tech.
You know, one of the things I love about Shadowrun's setting is that when real life time caught up to Shadowrun history, they didn't change anything. They were just like, "Nah, this is the history of our fictional world. Deal with it."
Shows artistic integrity.
Well one of the foundational aspects of trek is that it's supposed to be our future, its supposed to be inspirational. You dont get points for holding to canon at the expense of one of your core concepts.
I mean, all that does is switch from speculative fiction to alternative history, sticking to it isnt a bad thing at all.
Shadow run is amazing
Cyberpunk 20XX committed to the alt-history pretty early, taking place as it does in a timeline where the United States instead of the Soviet Union balkanised in the 90s, and Japan didn't spend the next 30 years paying for the economic illiteracy of the 1980s, and was all the better for it. It's quite liberating not being tied to making your future timeline consistent with the ever advancing present.
Future's End hits harder now than it did back in 96. Starling is literally Musk except smart.
Apparently Future's End was going to be a four part episode, but UPN wouldn't allow it so they had to compress them into two episodes. That's why part two has strange plot threads that come out of nowhere and act as obstacles.
Musk and Starling are similar, although I wouldn't see Musk risking his own life on a time ship that might kill him, just like he would never be a test subject for his Neuralink chip or on a trip to Mars. He values his own life too much so will use others instead.
I think Starling is similar to a lot of billionaires and politicians who pollute the air, water and land, destroying the planet for power and profit without any concern for the consequences. We see it with large companies and conservative politicians attacking scientists delivering warnings over pollution, climate change, and even health concerns like covid since action on the above eats into profits.
More like Stockton Rush. Except this ship is airtight.
When I saw Future's End for the first time as a little boy, I found the explanation of the technology leap quite convincing. As an adult I mainlly see this episode as an elaborate way of giving the doctor his mobile emitter. Since that's the only lasting thing it the episode for the rest of the series. But I still enjoy watching it.
Everyone seems to be having a good time, which is nice.
That Arizona GOP joke was amazing!!!
My dad subscribed to a Star Trek fanzine back then, and I remember a bunch of letters to the editor of people being *furious* that they came to *our* 1996, not the 1996 of the Eugenics Wars. The editors had a hilariously smug response where they casually said that Kirk's time trekking back in TOS had "moved" the Eugenics Wars. This made fans even angrier. I thought it was hilarious.
Fast forward nearly thirty years, and we have an episode where that's *exactly* what happened! My daughter was so confused when I burst out laughing at that line from the Romulan Redditor.
Ret-cons don't really bother me unless they're dumb. My bigger issue was the nonsensical bootstrap paradox.
The weirdest part, to me, was that they had Khan not even be alive during 1992-1996 (at least no evidence of that as presented), so there is a problem insofar as "if Khan didn't impregnate a particular person on a particular day, then the offspring that was sired later would be a different offspring which could cause a butterfly paradox wherein La'An Noonian-Singh may exist in the future but she could end up being a completely different genetic version who looks, thinks, and acts differentlyas compared to the La'An we know thus far."
Even if the events cause this difference in her ancestors, she could still ostensibly exist in the future somehow, but she would have theoretically arrived in the future and replaced the La'An native to thay future or they'd be doubled.
Steve and all, one of the reasons why Neelix’s addiction to 20th Century soap operas was so funny is because many of the cast (or @ least some of the recurring or guest cast) of all the “Star Trek” franchise series got their start, on television @ least, on soap operas. A matter-of-fact, Kate Mulgrew played the main character in the early run of “Ryan’s Hope” when it started in 1975. Many of us first became aware of Ethan Phillips (Neelix) back in 1979 for his role on the spinoff of the late-70’s soap opera spoof series “Soap”, “Benson”. I’m sure and know of many other examples of many of the “Star Trek” franchise alumni getting a start on soaps. I think you would be able to make a great episode of your channel to take a look into that.
So was Captain Braxton's password for the computer of his time ship "password"? Because Star Fleet IT should probably have a talk with him about that.
Golden Rule of IT: If an attacker has physical access and plenty of time, it’s Game Over, doesn’t matter how strong your security.
Let's give him some credit. It was probably "password12345".
The password was his handprint, and it worked whether he was conscious or not.
@@kjodleken8810 That's amazing. I've got the same combination on my luggage.
Could have been "drowssaP." You know...'cause of the whole "travelling backwards in time" thing.
The line, "A black man and some bald guy!" always makes me laugh
8:45 the best thing about the Voyager ufo video, is there was an actual ufo video shot on camera and played on the news during that time.
The Star Trek visual effects crew just took that video and placed the USS Voyager over the top of it. 19:51
Putting that in context makes more sense for the episode. It's a shame the reference gets lost for us folk living in the future.
That's pretty cool.
Needless to say, this episode was pretty damn hilarious. Seeing Sarah Silverman not being able to be profane and Tuvok ordering breakfast burritos is pretty awesome. I wonder what the Voyager crew would want in their burritos? Perhaps a future episode?
Also, the jokes about the Arizona rednecks was pretty spot on. Being an Arizona native, those types of people live all over northeastern Arizona.
Unashamed to admit that this episode gave me my first real crush - which I hold to this day! Sarah Silverman was an inspired casting.
I actually watched this when it first aired. I was also babysitting a good friend's infant so she could have an evening out to have some drinks. The infant cried a lot. I turned up the volume of the TV. The infant then realized I meant business with Voyager, scowled and stopped crying.
This has always been one of my favorite Voyager episodes. It's fun and moves along at a snappy pace. And it was my first introduction to Sarah Silverman, who I still maintain is a total babe (also very smart, accomplished and not at all someone to objectify...she's just great). It's one I can always put on for some nice 90s nostalgia, and laugh at the AZ militia boys. That was definitely a little mirror on that right wing terrorism movement of the time.
I'd always wished they'd done a "Spaceballs" bit, when Nelix and Kess were showing Janeway 1996 TV shows: "This is now. You're looking at now. What's happening here, is happening now.". Even if it was only for the gag reel.
Tim Russ as Tuvok: "We ain't found s****t!" - straight out of Spaceballs.
This is not really a complaint about the episode, I agree it is a fun and fleeting two parter with some good guest stars and characters interactions with each other, but I always wondered why Janeway did not select officers who were not alien to go on the away missions. If the alien crewmember were to be injured or die on earth, the discovery of an alien would certainly lead to ... questions... so why not just select human officers? I always thought this was why Picard chose to have Worf return to the ship in "Time's Arrow" as a Klingon on Earth in the past would be problematic. This again is not a big issue, but something I've always thought about.
Probably would have had an easier time tracking the time ship if she'd brought a single science or engineering officer, too.
Actor who plays Starling can be seen on a 90's series ("Sabrina: The teenage witch") getting his just desserts. Destined to be a Highschool math teacher for the rest of his character 's days 😆
My absolute favorite part about this episode is how disgruntled Tuvok is about being on earth in the 90s. "We could have worn our Starfleet uniform. I doubt anyone would have noticed." 😂
Loveed this episode..Starling was totally that oceangate guy..
"Time travel gives me a nosebleed." - Geordi LaForge
Starling gets the best Trek villain death ever - "... UH OH!" (boom.)
A bit cold of Janeway to blow him up, but I suppose he was doomed anyway.
My main issue with this issue is the contradiction of Braxton at the end of Future's End saying he has no memory of these events but in the Season five episode Relativity, Braxton says he did what he did because of the fallout of the events of that episode. It just demonstrates the issue you have stated before about Voyager that things that happen in one episode don't connect to the rest of the show.
IIRC, we learn that this only happens after "reintegration" of alternative selves.
Giving The Doctor the ability to leave sickbay did *anything but* diminish his character. It did the opposite, opening up enormous new avenues of story and character development. The mobile emitter allowed some of Voyager's best episodes to happen, episodes like Tinker, tenor, doctor, spy, and, well... perhaps a majority of the other Doctor-centric episodes that we got. Considering that The Doctor was already Voyager's strongest character by a pretty comfortable margin, giving him new avenues and the ability to partake in an expanded array of plots was one of the best story decisions that Voyager ever made.
I'm surprised they didn't make some sort of passing reference to Tom finding out what Rain's future turned out to be.
Wow, Steve said something nice about Voyager....
quick, fetch my fainting couch!
I don't disagree with your assessment of Voyager in general - how they failed to develop all but a few characters, how few things really change, the inconsistency, over-using the Borg, etc. I still really enjoy Voyager as a show though. It's tied for second with DS9, with TNG first, among "old Trek." You are factually correct about Voyager, and yet I love the show. :)
I'll never understand why people seem to love DS9 so much. I've tried multiple times to do a watch through of it but inevitably get bored and give up early on. The only character I like is Quark and his family. Everyone else is pretty uninteresting.
I adored this two parter as a kid but a few years later I realised that the central problem everyone's trying to prevent: the destruction of the solar system, can be avoided if the protagonists simply do nothing.
If Voyager lets itself get destroyed in the beginning, parts of it won't be found in the future and he won't come back to destroy them in the first place.
If they just let starling go into the future and blow himself up and don't try to stop him, again, parts of Voyager won't be found in the future and he won't come back to destroy them in the first place.
Honestly, the best way to stop the solar system from exploding, is to simply allow the solar system to explode.
I think once both ships cross the rift they become locked into the series of events, I believe they call it a predestination paradox. Then you have the whole microchip dilemma where computers might not have been invented without this future intervention. There are some other considerations to take into account, but yeah there's definitely some deus ex machina macguffining going on for sure.
My favorite part of the elisode was Sarah Silverman calling bullshit on the away party!
Futures End was the first Star Trek (two-parter) episode I watched, about a year after it came out. I got hooked immediately and we arranged for the local Blockbuster to call us whenever a new Voyager VHS tape would arrive (about 1 tape every month with two episodes on it). We would have Star Trek nights, getting snacks and such and sit around the TV together as a family. It was fun.
For all its faults, I credit Voyager as being the Trek that got me into Trek, and I love it all. Here we are, almost 30 years later still talking about it.
"If an Assassin from the future doesn't show up to stop you, how bad could your decision be?'
I don't mind the Doctor's mobile emitter. While, yes, it does remove his main limitation, it gives him new ones to work with. I'd rather have this, than have a stagnant character who is relegated to one room for an entire series.
Thank you Steve for this groovy Voyager episode breakdown. I know you're a little tough on the series and well deserved. From memory wasn't it broadcast on the UPN station as their flagship program? My all time favorite episode would have to be another time traveling adventure The Year of Hell pt1&2
I like to see the distinction of "He's awful but not unpleasant." He really plays like a classic WWF heel.
Stalling was very much based on the negative aspects of Steve Jobs 👍🏼
The episode which gave us Tuvok the freakasaurus 🖖🏽❤️
In 1990 or 1991 I got to do the Nelson thing. I filled out a booklet for a month. At the end they gave an opportunity to make comments. As a lifelong Star Trek fan, I talked about the shows. I think Next Gen was airing at the time. Possibly also DS9, which I didn’t love. I just couldn’t stay awake for a whole episode…I called it Deep Sleep 9.
Anyway, in my comment for Nelson, I complained that in 1990, in shows about the future, why didn’t they have a woman captain main character??
True story.
Needless to say, I was delighted when Voyager came out, and I actually liked that they were forced into being true explorers rather than like the Star Fleet of the Alpha Quadrant, for whom exploring was secondary to maintaining the Federation.
And I think Voyager with a strong female captain made way for Discovery, which was, to me, the best Star Trek in representing life in the military…people leave. People die. People make selfless sacrifices. And people grow. And if they get to have adventures along the way, awesome! Burnham is a wonderful role model for this generation’s girls…
Captain, First Officer, and Second officer, all planet-side leaving the ship without a command crew. Oh, and without a medic when the doctor is unable to be used.
That seems like good crew resource management.
A real call back to TOS away teams.
I like Future's End. It's one of my favorite Voyager episodes. I enjoyed your humorous explanation. I like Ed Begley Jr. and Sarah Silverman in this episode.
True, throwing in reasons why the technology in various seasons is so varied and often primitive to modern tech is completely unnecessary.
My only exception is where Red Dwarf explains why the 22nd century uses video tapes instead of discs and memory files. They kept on getting lost. You can't lose a VHS apparently, and I love that
But this episode does have relevance beyond the two-parter. In the episode "Relativity" a version of Braxton returns as a villain suffering PSD from his time spent in the 20th century and tries to destroy Voyager. I'm sure you'll be tearing that episode apart soon.
Speaking of… a tv show…
Support the strikers!
The owners intend to starve them and unhouse them to break them.
The actors are striking in support.
We workers need to stand up.
I like that the Nixon picture is the Nixon/Elvis photo😂
Looking forward to your review of SNW 2:5, was an absolutely incredible one IMO. I must say that show has had me crysmiling more than I like to admit. Hit me right in the feels.
I wish Tom or Tuvok could've got out a "Doubledumbass on you!" out while they were in the 90's ;-)
Thanks for all your work, these videos make life better without cost, it's a real gift.
Tovox beams down, looking like he is an extra on Miami Vice!
Voyager is my first trek love. DS9 is that girl at the bar you didn't notice at first but your friends pushed you to talk to her now you're married with 5 kids and happier then ever.
TNG is the hot girl at school that you feel deep in love with but now you look back and remember she was mean to you at first and not as cute as your true love
The Doctor getting the mobile emitter is very much a mechanism of writing many more stories. There have been many stories following the mobile emitter appearing that only have to do with the Doctor being a hologram that can actually leave the holographic projectors. I have to admit it created some cool story points. I liked when the doctor could be part of a ruse pretending to be someone else.
Yeah I remember this episode with vague fondness, it was fine. The anachronism I remember Sarah Silverman catching Tom Paris in was that he called himself a "Secret Agent", also I think he talked like the cold war was still on.
I remember Voyager having more than its share of time travel and time travel related episodes right from the first season (second episode).
From this episode (Future's End) we get:
Time travel. Ever since my first day in the job as a Starfleet Captain I swore I'd never let myself get caught in one of these godforsaken paradoxes. The future is the past, the past is the future. It all gives me a headache.
I also vaguely remember her saying in the 2nd episode (Parallax):
One of the more difficult concepts to grasp in temporal mechanics is that sometimes effect can precede cause. A reaction can be observed before the action which initiated it.
Of course O'Brien said it shortest and sweetest:
I hate temporal mechanics.
"Soviet?! The Soviet Union broke up five years ago! The KGB doesn't even exist any more"
and all Tom can think of to counter that is "That's what they want you to think"
@@ZoeMalDoran i mean it seemed silly and a off hand anachronism joke at the time but with the rise of Putin( even him being the ex leader of the KGB ) it almost seems prescient . like maybe Paris just didn't realize that all the trouble were having with Russia now wasnt still the soviet union. and i mean in 200 years is anyone going to see the difference of the soviet union being a left wing dictatorship and Putin being a right wing fascist dictator mattering all that much
it was the nineties! they weren't wearing government uniforms OR pajamas - clearly the line should have been "wow, you really like power rangers, huh?"
"Carpenter Street" next week? Yesssssss. Leland Orser 4EVR!
All things considered, your next group of retro reviews should be about Star Trek's labor dispute episodes. Obviously, "Bar Association" but also "Cloud Minders," "Workforce," and "Author, Author," and maybe "Quality of Life." Can you think of any others?
This is a fantastic idea and I'm definitely doing this. Thanks for the suggestion!
We went from 8-tracks and cassettes, wheels dragging magnetic tape across a coiled head. To shiny silver discs read by friggin' lasers, and you think 29th century technology wasn't involved because of a Voyager episode?
You really should do a retro-review of DS9s Little Green Men. That is one of favorite Star Trek time travel episodes.
My mother is obsessed with Voyager. Whenever there's a rerun of it (which is often in my country) she's watching it and no-one is allowed to switch channels 😂 but she vehemently refuses to watch any other Star Trek series. I tried convincing her to watch TNG, of which the TV channel often runs episodes right before Voyager, but she's adamant about only watching Voyager
One reason I'm not bothered by the Sterling plothole, is that I'm not sold our technology really is more advanced than TOS. In real life, the TOS computers with buttons and switches makes a lot more sense than TNG style computers. In space you would never trust LCD buttons to keep you alive.
21:05 the events of the timeship and the tech millionaire still happen with the 29th century ship.
That's an event out of time.
Voyage Home Kirk says "Scotty, Beam me up!" A little backwards but as close to "Beam me up Scotty!" as we're going to get. Lol
Contemporaneously, I loved this episode, and when I used to watch my dvd Voyager collection, it was one of my repeated favs. As usual, everything you say here is, I think, fair comment.
Here's my biggest problem with the episode: the end.
When they go chasing after Starling, and decide to blow him up, fine. BUT, he had already opened the temporal portal. For all they knew in the moment, their effort to blow him up might have been what caused the 29thC explosion. It would have seemed, to me at least, more plausible to blow him up if the portal was not yet there. It seems like a risk Janeway should have known better than to take, especially after Tuvok hypothesized that the event "may well be inevitable."
Other than that, yes the Doctor's mobile emitter still existing seems paradoxical, but like you, I forgave it on the basis that it freed up the writers to allow his character to develop in new ways. Since his character is, arguably, the most well developed on the show, I was, and am, happy it was like that.
Great video Steve.
G'day Steve, thanks for explaining what sweeps meant, I'd seen it referenced but never actually knew. Fun Fact: in the really early days of Australian TV (and not a lot of people had sets), they sent out blokes to the one establishments that did have them...pubs!
So they would pay blokes to rock up to pubs, get a drink and chat with the punters about what they thought of the shows (there were only two, maybe 3 channels back then). They'd come back and proudly report they were killing it! More of the same please!
And Aussie TV didn't really change out of variety and games shows for several decades...
Probably my favourite episode(s) of Voyager. It’s just fun.
I don't think they stopped Sterling from kicking off the computer revolution. That timeline happened before they blew up the timeship. What they stopped was the disaster that blew up the solar system, or the alternate timeline where he managed to figure out how the ship worked, and was vaporized by 29th century security that knew he was coming, leaving his company in the hands of the secretary and that old lady in accounting that always exists. The company becomes even more successful without Sterling making toys for himself.
That's my reading too.
Steve was on fire with this one.
You know what they say, there's the right way of doing something, there's the wrong way, then there's the Janeway. This 2-parter is pretty silly, but I really enjoyed this episode! Its one of my favourites from Voyager, one of the standouts in its general mediocrity. I also love it for the setup of Captain Braxton and the Relativity. The Wells Class (and Beta Canon sister ships, like the Mobius) is a GORGEOUS design for a Starship! The episode of the same name is hysterically good at poking fun at 'Time Travel Shenanigans' too, good payoff for what little continuity the series attempted sometimes.
The writers "If we steal the hard light drive from Red Dwarf, will they notice?"
It's interesting that the villain in this episode is Evil Steve Jobs (or just Steve Jobs, depending on your perspective).
I think the only other time I saw Ed Begley Jr play a villain was in an episode of Tales from the Crypt.
The more I think about it, the more I think Braxton didn't get orders to destroy Voyager, or even asked Starfleet if he should. He just went off to do it.
Braxton is an ominous name, because of unpopular Confederate General Braxton Bragg.
At the time, Voyager was a perfectly acceptable Star Trek series, as long as you just wanted a fun episode. Even upon modern rewatches, I don't look to Voyager for deep Star Trek content. Now that we have Strange New Worlds, I think we can have both Fun and Good.
I love 'Future's End', it's my 2nd/(3rd) favourite episode/(s) of Voyager. It's fun, action packed, carries a warning message about putting technology/profit before people, and it is a proper ensemble episode with all crew members getting something to do. Even, Harry, who is suck on the ship, has an important character moment, by being left in charge of the bridge, making decisions. I also like the Tom/Tuvok combo.
Janeway’s white suit 🤌
"Perfectly acceptable Star Trek." High praise from Steve Shives when it comes to Voyager!
Great episode as always Steve!
One thing that has always bugged me about this episode or any SciFi that uses reverse engineering of future tech. I don't think people understand how insanely complex reverse engineering is. I could take an iPhone back to the 1990s; it would be more capable than any desktop sold at that time. I could show it to the top engineers at any company or government and while they may be able to eventually understand the purpose and perhaps even figure out how the device functions the information would be of limited use. The CPU alone requires a level of complexity in manufacturing that evolved over long periods of time and at multiple companies. New technology also requires economies of scale to come down in price. The idea that a person in the 1960s could reverse 29th century tech is just insane.
Show co-creator (and one of the Trek franchise's most pivotal figures) Micheal Piller left the series at the tip of the beginning of season 3 and *man, does it show*. Whatever dramatic grounding Voyager had in its first two seasons was jettisoned shortly after Seska and Lon Sunder die in "Basics, part II". Then it's pretty much lightweight goofball city for the majority of the remainder of Voyager's run. It would have some sporadic excellent episodes (like "Living Witness", "Timeless", "Pathfinder" and "Lineage"), but the series would have a shit ton more "Threshold"-caliber episodes than episodes like "Death Wish". I miss Piller so much. Rest In Peace, Mike.
See there’s no contradiction between the TOS timeline and this episode because even if we’re in a pre-Tomorrow-and-Tomorrow-and-Tomorrow timeline, Starling’s changes to history clearly focused technological development on computer technology instead of genetic engineering and delayed the rise of augments! Once history was returned, the Eugenics Wars would have slotted back into the 1990s!
/and scene
I remember when I saw this episode when it originally aired, I thought that it was a convoluted overly done way to give the doctor more of a role in the show with the mobile emitter.
Maybe combining the doctors program with the mobile emitter is what finally made him sentient
I must admit, Steve, this was a far more charitable review of a Voyager episode than I've come to expect from you, but I enjoyed it. My adage with most of these Trek shows is that they take 3 seasons to find their footing and "get good" and Future's End, for me, is the point at which Voyager really started to figure out what kind of stories they were going to be good at telling. The latter half of Season 3 has some real gems in it pre-Borg. Outside of Future's End, "Insurrection Alpha" might actually be one of my favorites of this period. It almost feels like the Borg stuff interrupted this creative momentum they had going and forced them do a hard reset on their plans for the show. That's just me though.
Could be. Could b.
Best Star Trek content on TH-cam. Well done, friend.
While I can understand not being a fan of the Doctor having continued access to the mobile emitter, it provided more options to use Robert Picardo. So, still a positive imo. Lol
The Braxton character returns and events of this episode are referenced again in Season 5’s “Relativity”. New actor ( Bruce McGill. Jay Karnes also guested so really good lineup) plays Braxton, Voyager gets blown up with some kind of bomb. Braxton recruits Seven who hops through different eras (launch of ship, when it’s in Utopia Planitia) only to find out another variant of Braxton did it all along (they end up roping in Janeway too) as revenge for getting stranded in the 20th Century.
To go to the timeline question about Starling and the tech, the fifth season episode essentially says it did happen because apparently the evil Braxton is the homeless bum who’d crashed in Futures End. The way they explain it is these variants eventually get combined with their prime timeline counterpart into one person (the Braxton who went nuts in the past essentially became the dominant personality).
Funny thing is Relativity kinda plays as a middle finger/get a life coda to people obsessed with Trek canon. Janeway at one point even acknowledges basically how ridiculous time travel in Trek is (almost a fourth wall break). Seems pertinent after people got in a huff over SNW’s time travel episode (also the time agency and symbols established in Relativity are reused in SNW )
and at the conclusion of Futures End, when Braxton comes through the time vortex again, declared he had no memories of that timeline........when he was stuck in the 1960s. And his only concern was to return Voyager to the 24th Century.
The explanation of the Braxton variants is ridiculous, but I suppose they did lampshade that.
"MacGyver's House". You'd have done well in the Phoenix Foundation.
Greetings from Tucson! 100% accurate there.
G'Day Mate. Great review as always. Looking good, l like the weight loss.
I'm not completely sure the intent was that events got undone, and if it was, it's a plot hole internal to this episode. Why is Voyager still in the 20th century if the event that brought them there never happened; for that matter why would Voyager exist in the 24th century in a timeline where Earth was destroyed in the 20th?
It really makes more sense if the first Braxton is actually from an alternate timeline.
Did they say Earth would be destroyed in the 20th century, or was that Earth in the future would be destroyed?
They shouldn't have the holo-emitter either since that would be on Braxton's ship since it never crashed. Starling just popped back into existence too. He never died on the timeship that never crashed.
The whole thing is a paradox that can only be resolved with an altered timeline parallel universe which Star Trek is inconsistent with.
Sometimes Star Trek does time travel right, sometimes it doesn't, but sweet & sour Jesus I wish they'd stop doing it. The more often it happens, the less it matters, and the less space exploration matters. It's gotten to the point that there are so many ways to travel through time, there's no reason to believe civilization wouldn't have already been destroyed by negligent time travelers from all over the galaxy.
"Future's End" held my attention at the time of the broadcast. I've watched it several times since and enjoyed it. I don't look forward to it the way I look forward to "The Visitor" or "The Inner Light", so, okay enough to watch again but the enthusiasm wanes as time passes. The story is ultimately not as compelling as the Voyager episode "Workforce" which highlighted how important connection to our relationships is.
I have always felt the same way as you expressed about the mobile emitter. There were a couple times here and there where it did help add to a story in a pretty useful way, and this episode is one of those, but for the most part I always felt like it made him just another one of the main cast crewmembers. Sure, he's still a hologram, and they try to play to that story a number of times after he gets the mobile emitter, but those stories would've been much more powerful if he still had the limitation of only ever being in the holodeck or sickbay. I'm glad that it was used to get Robert Picardo more screentime since watching him perform is almost always wonderful and he brings weight to even the weightless stories he is included in. But imagine how much more powerful an episode like "Virtuoso", "Author, Author", and more would've been if the limitations placed on him that he's fighting to expand beyond still included him being permanently locked in just two rooms.
I know some people think there are no good plots with a time travel component, but I think suspension of disbelief does apply to time travel plots.
I'd say the stuff with Starling and his arrogance is at least a bit of social commentary, about how rich people ignore their luck and think they are smart, and how they don't care about the wellbeing of everyone else and don't really care about risk to themselves or others.
Sarah Silverman doesn't remember who she kissed in this episode and just remembers him being cute.
She's not wrong.
I havent watched Voyager in a long time but i did have fond memories of this episode. I remember liking the 90's characters and the actors who played them and I also remembered enjoying the development/plot device of The Doctor being able to now leave sickbay etc. What lets the show down (and this applies to alot of Voyager episodes) is that i couldnt remember until watching this review what happened to the actual crew in the episode. As Steve says at the end.. Voyager did a good job of making perfectly serviceable Star Trek, but theres nothing here that couldnt have been done in TOS, TNG or early DS9 when that show also had its identity crisis.
I defenetly think a peicemeal expansion of the doctor's areas could have helped. When the emergency engineering program is used for parts, he gets access to engineering. A large emplaced mobile emitter is set up in a location for an episode. And when the hirogens take over Voyager, he gains access to nearly the whole ship when it's converted to holographic hunting grounds.